Larry Brody's Guide to Writing for the Medium Everyone Loves to Hate

Proof of the Old TV Axiom – In Any Fight Between the Star & the Producer Pick the Star

by Larry Brody

If you’ve been following the adventures of COMMUNITY, you know that the show’s creator/showrunner/head imagineer, Dan Harmon was recently fired (as in his option not being picked up) when the show was unexpectedly renewed. Which meant a lot of interweb speculation on whether Chevy Chase, with whom Harmon definitely did not get along, would or would not return.

Why the speculation existed is beyond me. The minute Harmon was out, it was inevitable that Chevy would be in. Because that’s what the whole brouhaha had to be about. “The star works for the producer the first season. After that, the producer works for the star.” TV words to live by, remember?

When you get down to it, there aren’t really any ensemble shows (with the possible exception of THE OFFICE), no matter what the network flacks say. If a major star is part of the group, or a member of the group becomes a major star, executive starfuckers immediately circle around him/her and start sucking. That’s what they went into showbiz for – to hang near the front of the entourage.

And now, the article, which was going to be the only thing I posted here, except that I got carried away. (How does that keep happening?!):

Community Roll Call: Chevy Chase Shall Return
by Kimberly Roots

The entire Greendale Gang — Chevy Chase‘s Pierce Hawthorne included — will be in attendance when Season 4 of NBC’s Community arrives in October.

Chase, who portrays the moist towelette tycoon, hinted earlier this year that his well-publicized problems with Community creator and then-showrunner Dan Harmon might prompt him and the show to part ways. (We even included Pierce in our list of possibly expendable TV characters — and you overwhelmingly voted that the show would do just fine without him.)

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About LB

Larry Brody has been profiled in such national magazines and websites as Esquire, Entertainment Weekly, Starlog, People, Electronic Media, IndieSlate, TechTV, io9, and of course TV Guide.

A legendary figure in the television writing and production world, with a career going back to the late ’60s, Brody has written and produced literally thousands of hours of network and syndicated television.

Brody has also been active in the TV animation world, writing, creating, consulting, and/or supervising the cult favorite STAR TREK animated TV series, the SILVER SURFER, SPAWN, SUPERMAN, SPIDERMAN, and SPIDER-MAN UNLIMITED animated series, and was showrunner of the French animated series, DIABOLIK, as well as part of the team that developed and wrote the live-action/cgi animation sci-fi series Ace Lightning for the BBC.

Shows written or produced by Brody have won several awards including – yes, it’s true – Emmys.

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